Dear Friends,
It seems to me all parents know that you punish that which you don’t want and you reward that which you want. Any parent that did otherwise would quickly find their child unmanageable. But government sees it exactly the opposite way.
Government explicitly punishes good behavior and rewards bad behavior. Then wonders aloud why there is so much crime and poverty. In this case we see that the parent of a six years old son has more wisdom than the enlightened legislator.
Take two people. One saves and works hard. She pinches pennies to keep ahead of her bills. She studiously saves some money for retirement so she won’t be a burden. How does the welfare State treat her?
By taxing her at every turn. Her income is taxed at the highest rate, her property is taxed and the interest from her investments are taxed. In the aggregate dramatically lowering her standard of living.
Take a second person. She doesn’t work. Instead gets on drugs and gets pregnant. Her child is born with deformities from drug use during pregnancy. She doesn’t learn in school and is ignorant of reading and math as a result. How does the government treat her?
By providing spending money, housing, food, healthcare, daycare so she can have a “break,” often a car and free counseling.
But who has the better life? Most would argue that the woman who delays gratification. The person who makes the hard decisions, the person who is punished by the government. The person who is rewarded has a much lower standard of living even though she has immense amounts of free time to improve her situation. So it is clear that welfare state policies lower the lot of everyone.
So now we have an explosion of out of wedlock births in America coupled with an abortion rate that is the modern moral equivalent of slavery. The blame can be placed at the feet of the modern welfare State.
By trying as much as possible to eliminate the negative consequences of negative behavior government creates an incentive for people to engage in that behavior. Remember people are people. We are self maximizers. Most of us are rational self maximizers. But there are those who have not learned the rational part. It is a result of civilization. As children are civilized they become more rational about their choices.
But if government intercedes in the civilization of children by supplanting fathers it creates adults later who lack the rational part of rational self maximizer. Or in the terms of De Tocqueville self interested, rightly understood.
Unfortunately the problem has gotten out of hand. So badly so that to change policy now would inevitably lead to hugely negative results in the near term. This is only one of the myriad problems created by the modern welfare state. Problems that defy easy solutions. Every means of freeing society requires human suffering. (Which must always be avoided at as much as possible).
But the advocates of the welfare state claim more welfare state policies will fix the problems that earlier welfare state policies gave birth to. Like adding water to a flood. A little more won’t hurt much… but a little less would help… A lot.
